Snowden: No secret papers in Russia

Snowden: No secret papers in Russia

WASHINGTON

Former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden says that he did not take any secret NSA documents to Russia and that intelligence officials in China as well as Russia could not get access to the documents he had obtained before leaving the United States.

In an interview with The New York Times, Snowden said he handed over all the documents he had obtained to journalists during his stay in Hong Kong. The newspaper posted its story on its website Thursday.

Snowden said he did not retain copies of the documents and did not take them to Russia “because it wouldn’t serve the public interest,” the Times reported. He said his familiarity with China’s intelligence abilities allowed him to protect the documents from Chinese spies while he was in Hong Kong.

Wildfires destroy homes in Australia

SYDNEY

Authorities were assessing damage from almost 100 wildfires burning across Australia’s most populous state Friday that killed one man, razed an unknown number of homes and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.

Milder conditions were helping firefighters after Thursday’s unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds fanned flames across the parched landscape and threatened towns surrounding Sydney.

Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Natalie Sanders said the number of fires in New South Wales state had dropped from more than 100 overnight to 94, burning across 330 square miles. But 28 continued to burn out of control, she said.

Albright honored at West Point

WEST POINT, N.Y.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright received the U.S. Military Academy’s prestigious Thayer Award on Thursday, joining Dwight Eisenhower, Neil Armstrong and other past recipients recognized for their outstanding service to the U.S.

Albright, the first woman to hold the nation’s top diplomatic post, used the occasion to praise U.S. soldiers, call for an end to “partisan squabbling” in Washington and warn against isolationism.

The academy’s announcement of the award, named for former West Point Superintendent Col. Sylvanus Thayer, describes Albright as a leader on policy and international affairs. The annual award is given to citizens whose service illustrates the academy’s motto of “Duty, Honor, Country.”

NYPD: Teen found with fetus in bag

NEW YORK

A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters searched two teenage girls as they left a Manhattan lingerie shop Thursday afternoon and discovered one of them was carrying a fetus in her bag, police said.

The 17-year-old girls were shopping at a Victoria’s Secret store in midtown Manhattan, said police, who were called to the scene after a guard noticed a strong odor coming from one of the bags and found the fetus. One of the girls told detectives she was carrying the human remains because she had delivered a day earlier and didn’t know what to do, authorities said. It wasn’t clear whether the fetus was alive or dead when delivered.

The girls were arrested on charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, police said. The teen thought to have given birth was hospitalized, and the other was questioned by police.

Associated Press